Blog on the Lillypad
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Who Let the Preachers out?
A man old enough to be my father wrote yesterday and called the preachers on the Hyles-Anderson forum of the FFF a "mob of pigs". This man is usually pretty softspoken, but the latest outbreak of railing and reviling against me (prompted by my insistence that a trio of pastors give evidence of having repented before they be accepted as fit for church office. They are guilty of gross negligence and direct disobedience to Scripture in bringing a known sexual fornicator, adulterer, and child abuser onto paid church staff. Now that he has been found out yet again, they seem to have no where to look.) My correspondent writes, "They hate you because you are a free spirit, and they cannot control you."
Another man, almost (but not quite) young enough to be my son, writes, "I appreciate what you're doing in there, and I support you; somebody has to actually talk about what these IFB people are doing. I've been a victim of IFB abuse my whole life."
For new readers, "IFB" stands for "Independent Fundamental Baptist." There are good IFB churches, but there are plenty of bad ones, and there is very little accountability in the group as a whole. Corrupt IFB churches are known to insiders as "IFBx".
Several people wrote today, thanks to wider publication of my blogs on a Christian aggregator. I want to get the word out on these abuses and the problem of lack of accoubtability in the "independent" form of church governmwent.. It is not biblical, and it presents a danger that some people---especially young people---pay for in shattered lives and lifelong suffering. Brent Stevens, in fact, is dead.
A man old enough to be my father wrote yesterday and called the preachers on the Hyles-Anderson forum of the FFF a "mob of pigs". This man is usually pretty softspoken, but the latest outbreak of railing and reviling against me (prompted by my insistence that a trio of pastors give evidence of having repented before they be accepted as fit for church office. They are guilty of gross negligence and direct disobedience to Scripture in bringing a known sexual fornicator, adulterer, and child abuser onto paid church staff. Now that he has been found out yet again, they seem to have no where to look.) My correspondent writes, "They hate you because you are a free spirit, and they cannot control you."
Another man, almost (but not quite) young enough to be my son, writes, "I appreciate what you're doing in there, and I support you; somebody has to actually talk about what these IFB people are doing. I've been a victim of IFB abuse my whole life."
For new readers, "IFB" stands for "Independent Fundamental Baptist." There are good IFB churches, but there are plenty of bad ones, and there is very little accountability in the group as a whole. Corrupt IFB churches are known to insiders as "IFBx".
Several people wrote today, thanks to wider publication of my blogs on a Christian aggregator. I want to get the word out on these abuses and the problem of lack of accoubtability in the "independent" form of church governmwent.. It is not biblical, and it presents a danger that some people---especially young people---pay for in shattered lives and lifelong suffering. Brent Stevens, in fact, is dead.
